


If You Can't Tell, Does it Really Matter?

by Reikukaja



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Westworld (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Westworld Fusion, Awkward Flirting, Bad Flirting, Epic Fail, Explicit Language, F/M, First Impressions, Humor, Inappropriate Humor, POV Jean Kirstein, jeankasa - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 12:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15119429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reikukaja/pseuds/Reikukaja
Summary: Westworld AU - No SpoilersArmin was recently hired as an employee of Delos Corporation. One of the perks extended to new employees is a complimentary week-long visit to Westworld, so that employees can become familiar with the park. He's allowed to bring two friends, so Jean and Floch come along for the ride.Jean is against the idea of getting romantic with a robot, but perhaps he can make an exception when he sees that they have managed to successfully make an AI version of the girl of his dreams.Jeankasa AU Weekend – June 2018





	If You Can't Tell, Does it Really Matter?

**Author's Note:**

> SnK/Westworld Crossover (No Westworld Spoilers, I promise) 
> 
> SnK Characters / Westworld Universe (which I 100% did not come up with on my own.) 
> 
> For those of you who aren't aware, Westworld is an incredible show on HBO. Basically, all you need to know for this story is that Westworld is an amusement part with a classic "wild west" theme. The park is populated by robots that look incredibly human, and the idea is that guests can interact with hosts (the robots) in a no-consequences kind of environment. This brings out the best and the worst in people, as you might imagine. 
> 
> I recommend it more than I recommend just about any non-anime show. (Season 2 just ended last week so now is a great time to check it out!)  
> Plus the OST is lit.

"I can't believe you both went with white hats," Floch grumbles into his glass, returning it to his lips and tilting his head back to finish his drink. He slams it on the side table noisily to signal for a refill.  

The train rattles along down the tracks, and Jean is overcome by a strange sense of excitement. This whole experience is so surreal,  _already..._ and they'd barely gotten started.Not even one hour ago, he was in his own normal clothes, not this weird old-western style that the rest of the people on this train were now wearing. He'd been walking around what appeared to be a very modern facility. The park hub, they called it.  The welcome screen, Floch had explained to them. 

Westworld. A video game,  _kind of_. But one that takes place in the real world. A gargantuan "wild west" amusement park, populated by robots. Well... not quite robots....  _hosts_. They looked real enough to Jean, though. 

He finds himself glancing at all of the other people on the train. "People". He wonders how many of them are actually real human people.  He sure as hell couldn't tell with the host who welcomed him into the park. He'd actually asked her if she was real, to which she responded with just a cryptic  _"If you can't tell, does it even matter?"_  

He honestly  _couldn't_ tell. She was stunningly gorgeous though, so maybe he would have taken her up on her more.... provocative offers if he hadn't been so taken aback by what she proposed... and if she wasn't just a very realistic robot. 

"It's my first time," Armin shrugs and smiles. "I figure I can try playing black hat later."  

Floch snorts. "Gotta go gentle on your first time." 

Armin and Jean look at each other, exchanging a wordless ' _Why is he like this?'_  

"Not gonna lie Armin," Jean chuckles, disregarding Floch's comment. "I  _can't_ imagine you playing black hat."  

"You know..." Armin blinks a couple times, and looks out the window of the train before continuing.  "It's not often you get to choose to be a completely different person. That's what Westworld was built for, right? To let people unleash parts of themselves they keep hidden from the real world. To let them give up their humanity, in a world without consequences. I think it might be interesting to play the villain... to know what it feels like to be one."  

"In that case... Floch, maybe you should play white hat," Jean quips.  

"Black hat is the only way to play," Floch insists, ignoring the jab. He hardly acknowledges when a person (host?) walks by to serve him another of what he'd just been drinking, but he quickly picks up the new glass. 

"How many times have you been to the park again?" Armin asks, forgetting. Floch basically lived here nowadays. It was as if the guy was made of money.  

"Oh I've lost count," Floch answers as he takes another sip and leans back in his seat. "At least a dozen." 

"Maybe I will check out the park more now that I can go for free sometimes," Armin ponders.    

Jean looks out the window, admiring the scenery that was now visible through the window of his seat on the train. All of this was manmade, he had to remind himself. Everything. The lakes. The rivers. All animal life besides the flies, he'd been told. Even the freaking mesas and mountains. 

What a project. 

It's unreal.    

"Oh I meant to ask," Floch says after a few minutes of blissful silence. "What'd you guys think of the welcoming crew?"  

"...Welcoming crew?" Jean and Armin ask at the same time.  

"You know," Floch smirks. "The  _ladies._ The ones who prepare us to enter the park." 

"Oh them," Armin sighs. "I found it a bit unsettling."  

"Whaaat? Did you not get a little action in before hopping on the train?" Floch raises his eyebrows so Jean and Armin know exactly what he is talking about.  

"You can't be serious," Jean says, hiding half his face with his hand. "We only had like.... 10 minutes...."  

"Sometimes, all I need is  _two_  minutes," Floch brags. " _Fastest gun in the west."_

Why he brags about this, Jean has no idea. Luckily, Floch doesn’t get a chance to give them any more details. A bell begins to ring at the cabin door and the train begins screeching to a stop.  

"Hope you guys are ready," Floch grins, standing up from his seat when they are no longer moving. 

Armin, Jean, and everyone else on the train begin getting up and filing out the door. 

The first thing Jean notices when his boots touch the dirt is the smell. Granted, he had no experience with what the  _authentic_ "wild west" was like, but he imagines this is what it must have smelled like. It smells like horses, dirt, smoke, wood shavings, booze, and even piss. This is definitely not Disney World.  

It's loud too. Hoofbeats can be heard in almost any direction. There are people everywhere. People  _and hosts,_  he reminds himself. Some are in uniform, and one nearby is shouting about how they need to fight for their freedom... or something like that.  

"Fuck off Grizzly Adams!" Floch yells at the one who was making all the commotion. He throws up both of his middle fingers at the guy.  

"Someone you know?" Armin asks, confused by the sudden outburst. 

Floch then turns and explains, "Oh that asshole is basically a quest-giver. He's a cowardly shit though who tries to rope guests into what's supposed to be this big adventure, but that narrative is trash."  

"Ah... okay," Armin says.  

Floch continues talking, pointing out other hosts he is familiar with. He explains that this is Sweetwater, basically the starting area for new guests.  

"Shit here is pretty tame," he elaborates. "It's when you get further from the town that things get fun."  

"Fun?" Armin asks, but he's searching the crowd of people, looking for someone. "My coworker should be around here somewhere... she got hired around the same time I did, so she was going to be in the park this week too." 

Jean isn't listening. He's taking in all of the people around him. He's trying to figure out which ones are real. It's kind of fun, he realizes. A game, of sorts.  _Host or human?_  

A woman in a long blue and white dress crosses the street in front of them, and she drops a can in the road as they walk past. It rolls right in their path, so Armin stops to pick it up. He smiles genuinely as he holds it out for her to take. 

"Thank you," she says when she takes it from him, her fingers grazing his.  

"You're welcome!" he blushes.  

"Come on Romeo," Floch drags him away by the arm. "That's Dolores. Basically the girl next door. Her storyline is pretty basic. There are much better things here that we can spend our time on."  

 _'Like whores?'_ Jean almost asks, because he suspects Floch spends a lot of his time with the female hosts here.... hell, maybe even the male hosts too. It isn't as if Jean knows Floch  _that_ well _._  

But he only  _almost_ asks, because something else catches his eye and he completely forgets about what Floch is talking about.  

A girl is securing her horse outside the saloon, using a rope to tether it to one of the posts.  

A very pretty girl.  

 _Probably a host,_ he decides.  

While the woman who welcomed him into the park was gorgeous, this girl was something else. A host built just for him, he tells himself. Specifically for him, because whoever built her seemed to have modeled her after the girl of Jean Kirschtein's dreams. 

She's dressed in the same kind of dated getup that everyone else here is, but she's different because she's not wearing a big frilly dress like most of the women. No, this girl is dressed in a grey button-up shirt that she's tucked into her pants. Suspenders reach over both her shoulders, and Jean isn't sure he's ever seen a someone look so stunning in clothes that were so...  _not feminine?_  

Her outfit was not what first caught his attention though.  

Her hair was something else. It's an infinite abyss of inky blackness. It's perfectly smooth, and not a single strand is out of place. It comes just past her shoulders and frames her smooth porcelain face.  

Most humans become less attractive as you get a better look at them and see them up close. That was how Jean knew this girl was a host.... because she only became more entrancing as he got nearer.  

He decides that you know what – maybe hitting it off with a host wouldn't be too bad.  People do that here all the time. Maybe Floch was onto something? A host was a sure thing, right? She was probably programmed to enjoy talking to guys just like him. Low risk. High reward.  

 _You know what, fuck it._   

He slows his step, falling back behind Armin and Floch who are still talking. They don't notice him break away from them. Good.  

He's not nervous when he approaches her. She's a host, why would he be nervous?  

"Hey," Jean says.  

The girl turns around, and he flashes her his best smile.  

 _"Jean!"_  he hears Armin call out, but he doesn't turn around. He also hears Floch laughing loudly about something. Can't they see he's busy? Whatever is so funny, they can surely tell him later.  

"Hi..." The girl says to him, but she doesn't smile or anything. She just tilts her head and appraises him.  

Wow, she's even prettier up close. If she were a  _real_ girl, there is no way he would ever be able to talk to her. No way in hell. He would be positively petrified in that situation.  

"Was... there something you needed from me?" she asks and arches an eyebrow.  

"Uh... no," he says, stupidly. Good thing she is probably programmed to not care if he sounds stupid. "Not really."  

"Then... why are you talking to me?"  

"I've just never seen anyone like you before..." he sputters out. It's actually true, even if she is a robot. She's the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen. Nothing organic could be so flawless. Her midnight-black hair, her cold eyes, her cheeks, her lips... her everything.  

 _If only she were real,_  he thinks sadly. 

But... what happens in Westworld stays in Westworld.  

"You have really beautiful black hair," he finishes, and then something possesses him to reach out and touch it. So he does. He lightly fingers the strands of hair that had come lose from where they had probably been tucked behind her ear. It's so damn soft. He wonders if human hair can even get that soft.  

The girl reacts.... strangely. Her face pulls back and he sees color rise in her cheeks.  _Of course,_ the hosts would be programmed to blush and get embarrassed when they are subjected to this kind of attention, so he's not too discouraged.  

"Um, I -" the robot girl of his dreams begins to say. 

 _Fuck it._  

 _When in_ _Rome_ _. Carpe_ _diem. YOLO. ...Or something._  

He kisses her, because why not? No pretext is needed in this world... Right? 

 _Wrong._  

"Wofhhr!" She exclaims into his mouth.  

 _Huh?_  

He pulls back.  

"What the hell???" she nearly yells, perturbed. Maybe she was a host that wasn't programmed for this kind of thing. Maybe she's just confused. She wouldn't be a very believable robot if she didn't act confused when random strangers walk up to her and kiss her out of nowhere.  

These programmers are really good, Jean decides. You can literally  _see_  the imaginary bewilderment in her eyes. 

 _Amazing programmers._  

 **"Oh.** **My** **. Fucking. Fuck."**  

Jean looks over his shoulder. 

Floch is about 10 paces behind Jean. He's gasping for air, doubled over and clutching his abdomen. He's.... crying...? 

...He's laughing.  

"Jean," Armin says, panting. The two of them must have hurried to find him when they saw he'd wandered off.   

There's something else in Armin's voice though... Pity? Horror? What? 

"Jean," Armin says again, like he's not sure how to word what he's going to say next.  

The girl's expression changes when she sees Armin.  

"Hey Mikasa," Armin says to her.  

... _Mikasa? Armin knows this host? But he's never been to the park before... how would he know a –_  

 _Fuck._  

"Well," Armin says as he's turning back to Jean. "I see you've met Mikasa. We uh... work together." 

 _No._  

Jean's blood freezes in his veins.  

 _Fuck._  

He then sees the scar on her cheek. A robot wouldn't be given a scar like that.  

 _No._  

He sees the top of her phone poking out of her pocket. A robot wouldn't need a phone.  

 _Just. Fuck._  

Armin and this  _Mikasa_ are both staring at him now. He's absolutely certain that all of the blood has drained from his face.  

 _Mikasa_ clears her throat.  

Fuck. He'd just... 

Is it possible to die of embarrassment? Jean thinks he's about to find out.  

"Jean,"  _Mikasa_ says _._  

He dares to look at her, and there's a knowing grin on her face. She's figured out what happened. She knows he thought she was a host, but he'd still be surprised if she doesn't think he's the biggest creep she's ever had the misfortune of meeting.  

"It's nice to meet you Jean," she tells him, with a smirk. She's clearly finding some amusement in his horror and discomfort. "But next time...  _at least buy me a drink first."_   

This is hell, he concludes.  

Westworld is going to be his own personal hell for a whole week.  

 

 

 _Welcome to Westworld._  

 


End file.
